A 'shooting star leaping through the sky’ has been named after Freddie Mercury, to mark what would have been his 70th birthday today (5th September). Asteroid17473 was first discovered in 1991, the year of Freddie’s untimely death, and sits in an asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.

Freddie’s Queen bandmate and astrophysicist Dr Brian May announced the asteroid’s name at a party at Montreux Casino in aid of Mercury Phoenix Trust in Geneva, Switzerland last night where over 1,250 people had gathered to celebrate Freddie’s birthday.